I am sure there have been times when you needed subtitles for a specific film, only to find that they are out of sync.
This tutorial is going to show you a quick and easy way of permanently fixing this problem with Subtitle Workshop.

Now, the problem here is, I have an avi film with a framerate of 25 FPS.
The subtitle file I have downloaded happens to be for a film with a framerate of 23.976 FPS. (couldn't find another proper file)
Obviously with the difference in the framerate, the film runtime and the subtitle runtime will differ.
The film will be slightly faster and shorter and the subtitles will have a longer and wider spread duration, resulting in late subtitles.
This can easily be fixed by adjusting the timestamps in the srt file to match the duration of the film.

Now to begin...

I like to name the avi and the srt files the same. It makes for easy playback with VLC when they both play at the same time.

First, you will need to run Subtitle Workshop and drag the files into the following windows.

As the film is playing, take note of exactly when the first word is spoken in the film (give or take a few milliseconds).
Press Rewind, Play and Pause until you think you have it as close as possible.
Also have a look when the first subtitle is supposed to play.
In my example below, you will see the film speaks at 00:00:45,147.
The subtitles are to play at 00:00:46,702.
In other words, the subtitles will show 00:00:01,555 seconds after the film has started speaking.
After about an hour and a half of film, the milliseconds add up to a point where near the end of the film, they will be a few minutes late.
Anyhow, enough of that.

Now, you will need to find the final spoken word in the film and the final subtitle timestamp.
Do it the same way as I explained above and make note of these times as well.

Your next step is to adjust the srt times.
Press CTRL-ALT-P and a new window will open. Click on the Simple button to give you (wait for it...) a Simple view.
This window now displays your current First and Last srt times.
You will need to change the times to those you made note of during the film.

It should look like this when you change the time fields.
When ready, hit the Adjust button.

Now, if you look at your main subtitle times, you will see that they have changed to yournoted times.

Finally, it's time to save your new srt. Click File and choose Save As. Saving as SubRip will save it as an srt file.
Double Click the icon and it will open the save window. Unfortunately, it will save it as the same name and want to overwrite the previous file.
I suggest you call it something else for the time being in case you are not satisfied with the results. You can rename it later.

Well, that's it.
Sometimes it is not possible to find properly working subtitles.
I hope this will help you fix some of the common sync problems.Enjoy!

Note 1:

The Subtitle Workshop does not play all files like MKV and MP4's.
In this case, you can still use it by dragging the srt into workshop without the film loaded.
You can use another media player like VLC to find the first and last spoken words the same way by playing and pausing.
Then you can simply apply the values to the srt adjuster.